Greetings from Bloomington, IN, USA

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MindsEar

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Aug 20, 2005
8
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62
Bloomington, Indiana
www.minds-ear.org
Greetinsg! Just wanted to post a quick intro. I'm a casual/hobby aquariast, and was delighted to find this forum. I've been "in" cichlids for almost 20 years, and am a fool for oscars. My first experience with these beauties came in college, when a friend/classmate invited me to his family business -- a fish farm. I saw a pair of mated tiger oscars perform the spawning dance, which was amazing. Once the eggs were laid and fertilized, the keeper reached in to remove the slate (mom had eaten earlier spawns) and all was well until mom figured out what he was up to. She CHARGED him, attacking with impressive agility and focus, and eventually latched onto his extended thumb. She would NOT let go! She got down to the bone - a great, bloody mess. Once he had safely extracted both eggs and fingers, he says, with an excited grin, "So, you want a couple of these guys for you own?" My immediate response was a stunned, "ARE YOU INSANE? Why the h*** would I want that pyscho, killer fish? NO WAY!"

Suffice to say, I came around, and I was given a pair of this protective mama's fry when they reached about an inch and half, and these two became my BABIES -- they would take food from my hands...and, in a nod to Sea World, would even take noodles from my LIPS. I loved these guys - ahd them for about 10 years before they went to the great pond in the sky.

Now, I have a new baby, Aragorn (yeah, I know: geek!) and his picture is attached. In the pic, you can see his two blood parrot pals (really -- they get along swimmingly - pardon the pun) and the tail of his ex-tankmate, Figwit the pacu (read his tale, er, tail in another post!). I currently have just two tanks:

55-gallon fresh - the INTERESTING tank!: 14" tiger oscar, 2 4" blood parrots and a 12" pleco
29-gallon fresh - the "pretty" tank: 1 2" dwarf ram cichlid, 4 3" hatchet danios, 1 5" pleco, 1 male betta and a 3" sunset gourami.

I'd LOVE to get at least a 150, but that's not in the cards just yet.

Always happy to find a new forum in which to discuss cichlids and other big fishies.

Aragorn and BPs.JPG
 
w00t w00t!!

The tank looks VERY well decorated, and I love it's inhabitants!!! :woot:

I have a couple friends that lived in Bloomington and go to college there!!

Yay for Indiana and the MFKers who live there!!!
 
Nice to see some fellow hoosiers in the house. I'm up here by the lake. Well nice to meet you.
 
Hiya and welcome
 
iheartfishies said:
w00t w00t!!

The tank looks VERY well decorated, and I love it's inhabitants!!! :woot:

I have a couple friends that lived in Bloomington and go to college there!!

Yay for Indiana and the MFKers who live there!!!
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HIYA, Iheartfishies!

I, too, love fishies and I, too, have a vagina!

Great minds think alike, yeah?

Ahem.

I got a good giggle out of your compliments re the tank's interior design. What I learned, DECADES ago, is that one does not create a specific design schema upon an oscar. One merely has the audacity to inflict OBJECTS into its space, and the OSCAR will do the decorating, thank you very much. My first love, Maynard (one of those two baby fry I saw spawned) was a hoot. He had the most personality of any oscar I've ever been owned by. He had a pretty large (3 lbs, prob 4x4x8") chunk of petrified wood in his tank, and he would amuse himself for HOURS by patiently scooping out the gravel on the downhill side, intil it would eventually roll, ever-so-slightly, toward where HE wanted it to be. He could move that rock from one end of the 55 to the other in a little over a day. Because it was so heavy, I never really worried about him slamming it into the glass - he cou;dn't get enough momentum rolling for that to be a concern. And he would, ever-so-patiently, calmly observe me planting a plastic plant in HIS tank...and would politely wait for MOST of my arm to be out of the tank before he calmy swam over...and instantly uprooted it...so that he could put it where HE wanted. I stupidly played a battle of wills over this issue for a short period, then gave up. Hey: it's HIS house, not mine!

So, when I read you comment re the tank, I laughed, really loud. All I can say is, "I'll pass your compliments onto Aragorn -- it's all his handiwork, not mine!" For some reason, he ignores that blade plant (below him in the picture); it rarely gets attacked, but the big floaty green plant is his favorite toy. He'll spend quite a few minutes blissfully dragging it here and there, and he loves to hunt for pellets (and the goldfish) that are foolish enough to seek refuge within.

ROFL on that one; thanks.

The porcelain polar bear (you can see him in a couple shots in my gallery) is about 120 years old, and was brought back from Norway in 1885 by my great grandfather, and it has been in every tank I've ever owned. It WAS in the 55, but for some reason, it REALLY , REALLLLLY pissed this oscar off...so to preserve both the poor fish's sanity (and a prized antique), I moved it to the more peaceful community tank. (And yes, BEFORE it became a tank ornament, I did have it tested by a university professor/lab who determined that it posed no threat to the fish!)

The big branchie thing was a gift for our Middle Earth-themed tanks, as it reminded the buyer of "Treebeard". Ah yes.

I'm SO GLAD I found this forum!
 
softturtle said:
Nice to see some fellow hoosiers in the house. I'm up here by the lake. Well nice to meet you.
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Hey, softturtle!

Which lake? At first, I thought Monroe -- but your ID say NW Indiana?

Hey -- a couple folks I spoke with re a home for my pacu said that they had heard that folks had caught JUVENILE pacu in Lake Monroe -- which suggests a breeding colony. You know anything about THAT? EEENTERESTING. NOT NOT NOT that I promote/advocate or condone the release of a non-native species into ANY ecosystem, but I AM curious to hear if anyone actually CAUGHT one of these Amazonian fish in a midwestern lake - or if this is an urban legend. Thoughts?
 
If I saw this ******* in my way, in my SPACE, I'd def wanna kick his ass also!! :ROFL:

Also I'm glad to have you here!!..Because you have a vagina of courSE!!!:)

 
MindsEar

Glad to see another central Indy memeber...... If you want that "dream of a new tank" to come true to come true or just need some fish or reptile stuff PM me and I can buy at the dist.... I live at 37 and smith valley.

Repair
 
:ROFL: Ah, Iheartfishies, I think thee and me is gonna get along JUST FINE!

ROFL! LMFAO!

Of the 12 or so big oscars I've had, who have all shared their tanks with this guy, Aragorn is the only one who really flipped out. Thus, the previously unnamed polar bear has been dubbed "Saruman".

(Yeah, I know. Geek, and proud.)
 
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